 Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Year Of Release: 1971
Plot: In a futuristic Britain, Alex is an out of control hooligan who loves nothing more than engaging in a bit of meaningless ‘ultraviolence’ with his gang of droogs. When he’s jailed for his series of crimes, he asks to undergo the ‘Ludivico Technique’, which is supposed to change people’s behaviour completely, so they can be released from prison. However the transformed Alex – who’s now incapable of bad acts because his conditioning means he can’t misbehave even if he wants to – is met with coldness by those on the outside and soon his treatment drives him towards suicide. Then, when the government is criticised for taking part in inhuman experiments, Alex becomes an embarrassment. |
I find it kind of interesting that neither of the two films that are probably the most famous for being ‘banned’ in the UK – A Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist – were ever actually officially banned. Over the years quite a lot of movies have indeed been prohibited from being shown in Britain, getting refused a certificate at the cinema or on video by the British Board Of Film Classification (the BBFC), normally for being too violent or sexy. However neither Clockwork Orange of The Exorcist are on that list (it should be noted though that very few films get banned nowadays and most of the old movies that were once rejected by the BBFC have now had that decision overturned).
The most notorious time for the BBFC to reject movies was after the 1984 Video Recordings Act was passed. Until that point, the only restriction on what could or couldn’t come out on video was that it didn’t contravene other vague bits of legislation, such as that it couldn’t be classed as obscene or show animal cruelty. However no official certificate was needed.
Incidentally, there’s no law in the UK that says films for the cinema have to have a BBFC certificate. The official powers over what can and can’t be shown in cinemas and what certificates movies should have actually rest with local governments, but they normally defer to the BBFC. That said, occasionally they disagree, such as when The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was refused a certificate by the BBFC in the mid-70s, but later given a license by the local council to be shown in Westminster (the film wasn’t certified by the BBFC until 1999).
However, returning to the Video Recordings Act, following huge newspaper scares in the early 80s over so-called ‘video nasties’, the government rushed legislation through designed to stop gruesomely violent and very sexual titles being available to children (or adults if the BBFC decided against it). Since then, no filmed ‘moving images’ have been allowed to be released on video or DVD in the UK unless it’s been issued a certificate by the BBFC (unless it’s a non-fiction title with nothing in it that could cause offense).
To a certain extent though, all that’s slightly beside the point with A Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist, as technically neither was banned in Britain. With A Clockwork Orange, the film was passed by the BBFC for cinema distribution in 1971 with no cuts made. It was released on January 13th, 1972 and almost immediately ran into a storm of controversy. The film was accused of being sick and perverse due to the amounts of sex and violence (and particularly sexual violence) in the movie. However, whereas with most movies the controversy quickly dies down, with A Clockwork Orange the anger and debate continued.
At the 1972 trial of a teenager accused of beating up an old man for kicks, the defence lawyers blamed A Clockwork Orange, saying it was a copycat crime and that the film was as much to blame as the child. The press also held the movie responsible for a gang rape where the attackers were alleged to have sung Singin’ In The Rain.
In 1973, Kubrick asked Warner to withdraw the film from distribution in the UK. Although the studio wasn’t legally obliged to, Warner acceded to his request, largely because they wanted to maintain the close working relationship they’d built up with the auteur. While it was widely believed it was his worries about these copycat crimes that caused Kubrick to ask for the film to be withdrawn, after his death his widow confirmed that the reason he didn’t want the movie in UK cinemas anymore was because he had received numerous death threats, and the request was made on police advice.
A Clockwork Orange was pulled from distribution in Britain, but the fact is it was never officially banned and if Kubrick and/or Warner had changed their minds, there was nothing to stop them re-releasing the movie. However Kubrick didn’t want it seen in the UK and the moratorium was rigorously enforced. When the Scala Film Club put on an unlicensed showing of the film in 1993, Warner sued (at Kubrick’s insistence) and won, forcing the cinemas to close its doors.
However, after Kubrick died in 1999, Warner decided to lift the self-imposed UK ban. The movie was resubmitted to the BBFC, where it was given an uncut 18 certificate, and re-released in cinemas and then on DVD and video. The fact is though, it was never genuinely banned in Britain, as it could been released at any point if Warner had decided they wanted to.
It’s slightly different with The Exorcist, as that one would have been banned, but because of the actions (or rather inaction) of the studio – again Warner Bros. – it never officially was. The movie was released in UK cinemas uncut in 1974 after being given an X certificate (and again with an 18 certificate in 1990). While there was a bit of controversy about the film, there’s never been any official attempt to stop its distribution in UK cinemas.
It was also brought out on video in the UK in 1981, but soon got swept up in the video nasties furore of the mid-80s, largely because it was one of the few well known, notoriously scary horror titles newspapers could think of to act as a sort of rallying point for public anger. When the Video Recordings Act became law in 1984, Warner would have had to submit the film to the BBFC for a certificate to allow it to be legally available for the home from then on. However for 15 years after the Act became law, the studio never made any attempt to bring The Exorcist out on video in the UK, which means that despite its reputation, it was never officially banned in Britain.
However there was good reason that Warner never submitted the film to the BBFC for a video certificate, as there was a tacit understanding that if they did, it would indeed be rejected, with the reasoning being that it was too intense for home viewing (its video nasty reputation also worked against it, as both the BBFC and Warner knew the controversy it would cause in the 80s if it was given a certificate).
In the late 90s, the BBFC rules were relaxed and it became clear that if submitted, The Exorcist would probably be passed with an 18 certificate. As a result, a new cinema and then home entertainment release was organised for 1998, and ever since then it’s been available on video and then DVD in the UK.
It does mean though, that neither The Exorcist nor A Clockwork Orange was ever prohibited in any official way in Britain either in cinemas or in the home, despite the fact that they’re the first two films most people would think of if asked what movies have been banned in the UK.
TIM ISAAC
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